Joseph Cowan Memorial Statue

On a sunny wander up Westgate Road, this statue of local politician Joseph Cowan cast a dominant shadow at the junction with Fenkle Street.

Towering above the bustle of the traffic and the busy footsteps of commuters, Cowan is depicted as a man of honour and vigour, talking to an audience with an outstretched arm and clutching his collar.

Born at Blaydon Burn in 1829 and working initially in his family's firebrick business, Cowan was a Liberal politician and treasurer of the Northern Reform Union. He was epic in his political views and wrote prolifically for The Chronicle. He was a member of Parliament between 1873 and 1886, and he was a popular orator but with an accent so strong that upon his maiden speech in parliament, people thought he was speaking Latin!

Here he stands holding court over Westgate Road on a tall, sandstone plinth weathered over the years of coal, then cars and is immortalised as the region's most significant politician of the second half of the nineteenth century. The things he'd have seen and the changes he'd have made!

Cowan was a politician for the people. He worked hard to reform public health, supported industry, he campaigned for the Cooperative movement, Mechanics' Institutes and supported the Suffrage reform movement. He supported the lives and welfare of miners and fought for better living conditions and their learning. He instigated a public library for the people of Newcastle.

Cowan was a key player in the cultural and social tapestry of Tyneside too, being a prominent member of many local societies like The Lit and Phil and The Natural History Society.

His roots were in giving voice to the working class, and his work revolved around supporting the various institutes, trade unions and cooperative societies in the region. He retired from politics in 1886, expressing his disdain at the political system and focusing on his second love of writing for the newspaper he had established and nurtured, The Newcastle Daily Chronicle.

I loved his strong, bold stance amidst the busy life of the town with Cross House as a backdrop. Here he stands talking to the people, a once celebrated figure, whom now people will pass by and probably not question.

I wondered why the statue was positioned here. Standing on a solid stone plinth, it looks as though the outer surrounding base structure has been added at a later date, possibly to protect him from the knocks and bumps of modern city life. His slice of Tyneside may have been swallowed up in the making of new roads and buildings.

Upon his death in 1900, Earl Grey set up the Cowan Memorial Committee in 1903 with the desire to raise public funds of £5,000 to make a bronze statue of Cowan. Three designs were offered, and the contract was given to London-based sculptor Tweed for the way he'd captured Cowan's oratorial stance.

A newspaper of the time commented that “The whole bearing of the figure and the gesture are very characteristic”.

It was thought by the committee that the siting of Cowan's Monument here, at this point in Newcastle gave representation to his involvement in politics in the west of Newcastle and placed him in the forefront of the route to The Tyne Theatre which he helped to finance and construct with materials from his family business, The Blaydon Brickworks.

George Stanley, an actor-manager who ran the Tyne Concert Hall in Neville Street, had wanted to build a theatre for the working classes to address the appetite for public spectacle. He was refused by the magistrates of the city, so Cowan supported him in his endeavours. Cowan wanted to open up cultural activities and opportunities for the working classes, and make creativity an integral part of the lives of those who worked hard. He believed that education and engagement in cultural activity were the rights of all citizens and not just the wealthy.

So perhaps here, at this triangulated point of town, approach to the west of the city, in sight of the Tyne Theatre and within a stone's throw of the Chronicle offices, was the most poignant place to stand this memorial to remember such a significant contributor to the life and wellbeing of the city's people.

I love his strong position and the energy that is imbued in bronze, and when you read and learn more about the significance of how Cowan supported reform and helped the lives of working-class people, elevating them through education and cultural opportunities, it makes me want to look up all the more.